The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) has awarded a contract to TuSimple, a global self-driving truck company based in San Diego, to perform five round trips, for a two-week pilot, hauling USPS trailers more than 1,000 miles between the USPS's Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, distribution centers.
In a statement, TuSimple said that the truck will have a safety engineer and driver on board for the duration of the pilot to monitor vehicle performance and to ensure public safety.
TuSimple, which operates self-driving trucks out of Tucson, Arizona, said that it will run a series of its self-driving trucks for 22 hours each, which includes overnight driving, along the I-10, I-20, and I-30 corridors to make the trip through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The freight that flows along I-10 corridor accounts for 60 percent of the total economic activity in the United States. TuSimple said that it expects this to be a central route for the company because there already is strong demand from other customers for runs between Arizona and Texas.
“It is exciting to think that before many people will ride in a robo-taxi, their mail and packages may be carried in a self-driving truck,” said Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder, president, and chief technology officer at TuSimple. “Performing for the USPS on this pilot in this particular commercial corridor gives us specific use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress.”
TuSimple said that long-haul routes with short turnaround times, such as this 22 hour journey, are well suited for self-driving trucks because they normally are accomplished with driving teams of two. Driving teams are challenging to recruit due to overnight driving requirements, the need to share close quarters with another person and a significant truck driver shortage. According to the American Trucking Association (“ATA”), the driver shortage could reach 175,000 by 2024.
The USPS is exploring the feasibility of utilizing autonomous delivery vehicle technology to reduce fuel costs, increase safe truck operation, and improve its fleet utilization rate through longer hours of operation.
Learn more: www.tusimple.com.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].